18 Buffett Lessons; 101 Deal-Making Maxims; Go Big or Go Home; Tom Searcy Seminar

"...out-learning the competition"

HEADLINES:

"Think big or go home. At the beginning of an annual stockholder's meeting, Buffett tapped the microphone to see if it was on: "testing . . . one million . . . two million . . . three million."
	Tom Searcy, author of How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett

101 Deal-making Maxims -- above is just one of the 101 fun and insightful maxims Tom Searcy highlights in his new book How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett: Lessons From the World's Greatest Dealmaker. Author of several books including Whale Hunting and RFPs Suck, Tom specializes in helping companies land the big deals that are transformational to your business. In his latest book, he shares 18 specific lessons from Warren Buffett like "Only Deal with Dealmakers" (boy is that true!!). Sprinkled among the specific lessons are the maxims - makes for a fun read as he shares the details of some of Buffett's biggest deals.

Four Most Important Lessons -- and in the online seminar he just produced for Gazelles Growth Institute, he goes deep into the four most important lessons for landing big deals - including specific "how to's" and a great Buffett story to anchor each lesson. He then touches on three additional lessons of the 18 from the book. I like when an author chooses the best of their own list to save us time and provide additional focus. It's a useful presentation for your next sales meeting or for anyone in the firm that needs to think bigger. There's a nominal charge for the online seminar and always a money back guarantee if you didn't find it insightful. Here's a link to the seminar.

One of Us -- before Tom Searcy was 40, he had headed four corporations, each of which he took from annual revenues of less than $15 million to more than $100 million. Notes Tom, "Those were fantastic experiences for me, but I discovered along the way that what I really love doing is working with others to help them have the kind of experiences I had." The first step is adding a few zeros to your own thinking.

Highlights -- Amazon does a nice job of highlighting some of my favorite "Warren Ways" from the book:

Warren Way #22: Choose quality. "It's better to own a portion of the Hope diamond than 100 percent of a rhinestone." Warren Way #41: Deal making is a no-called-strike game. "You don't have to swing at everything--you can wait for your pitch." Warren Way #75. Think long term. "Our favorite holding period is forever." Warren Way #92. Don't do deals just to do deals. "We don't get paid for activity, just for being right." Warren Way #98. Think for yourself. "My idea of a group decision is to look in the mirror."